cgibbo,
I would follow the manual directions very carefully and would practice all situations as described by Ken in post #2.
1) "Full flaps make the Cherokee .40 ARF very steady in the landing pattern, but just carry a little extra power to make up for the extra drag. The extra drag of the flaps also allows you to make shorter, steeper approaches.
2) The Cherokee .40 ARF needs to touch down with a nose high attitude to avoid whacking the nose gear and skipping back into the air. For this reason, landings with flaps require a deliberate flare with high rate elevator to raise the nose.
3) Touch and go’s and go-around’s can be accomplished with full flaps. Just use the elevator to establish a shallow climb.
4) It is preferred to have the flaps up or at “half” setting for takeoffs and climb-outs because the plane will accelerate and climb much better."
The reasons behind the above bold text:
1) You are used to the rate of deceleration of your trainer when the power is reduced. The schematic shows that the section of the wings that is covered by the flaps will increase the lift force that is a produced for certain velocity and AOA (higher coefficient of lift or CL). Drag will increase as well, because drag is always associated to lift. For the second stage of the flaps (full deflection), the drag increases more than the lift, because the area facing the airstream increases much, and the flap acts more like an air break. The only force that opposes drag is thrust; hence, keep that engine pulling the plane, and avoid too low airspeed over the wing.
2) Flaps deflection may introduce a nose down (more frequently) or nose up pitch. The elevator is the only thing that can counteract that pitch and keep the plane in a horizontal or slightly nose up attitude (for landing). The elevator must have enough authority to do that compensation job. Flaps-elevator mix may be good to have. If no mix, then steady elevator input with deployed flaps may necessary.
3) When flaps are retracted, the wing loses the extra lift that had been gained after they were deployed. That may become dangerous if the airspeed is not increased accordingly and progressively and if the plane is too low.
4) Half setting = More lift than drag (Just what we want for any accelerating take-off).
Also, check this article out:
http://www.modelairplanenews.com/Med...ager/flaps.pdf
Best luck and good landings!!